The City of Edinburgh Council steps up its fight against scams

Friends Against Scams is excited to announce that the City of Edinburgh
Council has stepped up its fight against scams by joining forces with us.

The Council is the first organisation in Scotland to make the Friends
Against Scams pledge to change the perceptions and raise awareness of scams
amongst staff and the wider
community.

Community Safety leader Councillor Joan Griffiths (picture on right) made
her official pledge on Friday 3rd February promising to educate
people about cons such as fake lotteries, deceptive prize draws and
sweepstakes, clairvoyants and computer scams.

All members of the Council's Trading Standards team are registered Friends Against Scams and work to
make staff aware of scams, to help them spot the signs of a scam both in
work and at home, and to take steps to prevent people falling victim.

The team have also pledged to take this training to partners and third sector organisations who come into regular contact with
potential victims to train as SCAMchampions, who can advise people on the
tricks used by con artists and how to avoid them.

On
completing the free online learning, Councillor Griffiths said: "I'm very
excited to take this pledge and become a SCAMbassador for the Friends Against
Scams initiative.

"Scams are heartless but very lucrative operations
often taking advantage of people's good nature and conning them out of their
hard-earned money.

"Friends
Against Scams is designed to promote awareness and remove some of the
embarrassment that can be experienced by those who respond, encouraging people
to share stories of their experiences with friends and family and normalise
this type of conversation.

"I would
urge everyone to look out for their friends and relatives who may be more
vulnerable to scams, which can be very clever in their presentation, and can
take a variety of forms."

Anyone in the Edinburgh area who
suspects they or someone they know have been the victim of a scam should
contact Edinburgh's Trading Standards team on 0131 529 3030 for more information.

I work for a bank and have just undertaken the online learning.
After completing the online learning, I was confident enough today to stop a
customer from losing money as she had been caught up in a Romance scam on the
Internet. It was a bit of a shock for her at first but she was relieved that
she hadn't lost her very hard earned money.